Tuesday, 13 November 2012

I wondered if you might be interested to know what my
top ten blog posts of all time were? ‘Of
all time’ goes back to when this blog started in February 2009. In that time I
have published 260 posts (including this one) but certain ones remain popular
even though they may have been written months or even years ago. In fact five of my all time top ten posts are
still currently in my ‘this week’ top ten as well, so clearly those subjects
grabbed you for some reason. So here’s
my top ten, in reverse order:

In this post I discussed my own problems with
maintaining balance sometimes and looked at the physiology behind balance. I
then looked at how these balance principles apply to martial arts and what you
can do to improve your own balance issues. I’m still very mindful of these
balance principles when I am doing karate and my balance is much improved now -always
room for improvement though ;-)

This post was designed to dispel a few myths about
muscle memory. I wrote about disliking the term ‘muscle memory’ preferring the
more accurate term ‘motor memory’. I then tried to explain the best I could the
physiology behind motor memory and how we produce motor maps in our brains that
help us to unconsciously execute complex motor movements such as martial arts
moves. My main point was to explain that the muscle/motor memory resides in the
brain not the muscles!

I wrote this post 6 months before I took my black belt
grading as part of my black belt preparations. I was aware from other bloggers
that many people suffer the ‘black belt blues’ after achieving there shodan
grading and I wanted to avoid this. I felt that having some kind of plan or
post black belt objectives to think about may help to prevent that ‘anti-climax’
feeling that some people get. All I can say is 17 months after achieving my
black belt I have not at any time felt like giving up or felt rudderless or
directionless in any way – and yes, I have been enjoying those 6 things I wrote
about in this post. A good job really
because the prospect of Nidan grading is raising its head at me in 7 months
time!

Wow! Has a lot of water gone under the bridge since I
wrote this post. Back then I was a brown belt student helping out in class to
gain teaching experience for when I could take my instructor’s certificate post
black belt. I now have many hours of teaching experience with kids in after
school karate clubs. I still find it rewarding and sometimes frustrating and I’m
still always looking for new ideas to motivate and teach kids – it’s all
definitely a challenge still!

I wrote this post after reading about how some martial
arts schools really exploit their students and overcharge them or tie them into
extortionate contracts. I decided to work out how much it had actually cost to
get from white belt to black belt in terms of class fees, licence fees, grading
fees, equipment, course etc. I calculated that it had cost me £1577 over 4
years to get my black belt or £7.58 per week! I concluded that this was good
value for money.

Six months before I took my own black belt grading I
partnered one of our teenage girls for hers. This gave me an opportunity to
have a sneak preview of what to expect for my grading – there’s always method in my madness! I wrote a report about the
day which has proven to be very popular.

4.Barefoot care. (Published 21st
September 2010 – still in this week’s top ten)

I wrote this foot care guide because I was getting
problems with my own feet – mainly cramps, blisters and cracked skin on my the
underside of my toes from friction on the hard training floor. I presume this
post is so popular because it appeals to people, other than martial artists who
also train barefoot or just suffer from foot problems in general. I must
confess that I don’t do everything that I mention in the guide but I think my
feet are a little stronger now, though I still get the occasional blister!

This was one of 8 ‘Why do we……’ articles that I wrote
and has proven to be the most popular. I was fascinated with the traditions and
rituals that surround traditional martial arts and decided to try and research
the origins and meanings of them. I still really value the opening and closing
seated bow ceremonies that we practice in our club and teach it to all my
children’s after school clubs. All the
kids seem to like it too.

As part of my learning to understand budo I went
through a phase of learning about other Japanese Ways including Ikebana
(Japanese flower arranging or The Way of
flowers). Reading about Ikebana I was amazed at how similar the philosophy
was to that of budo and so wrote a post about the subject. It is still very
popular and remains in my weekly top ten posts every week.

Okay, so now for my top post of all time. I can’t, in
fact, take the credit for this post because it was actually written by several
of my readers – I just edited and compiled the information you gave me – so give
yourselves a bit pat on the back because you hold the number one position in my
top ten posts of all time:

This guide resulted from me asking my readers for any
tips they had that would help me to prepare for my black belt test. I was so
overwhelmed with the response that I got that I decided to compile all the tips
into a guide that others could also use giving credit (and a link) to every
contributor. It has been phenomenally popular, receiving at least 1000 more
hits that the number 2 post! I sincerely hope that all the contributors to this
guide who received a link to their own blog/website continue to get as much
traffic via this post as I receive from it.

Well that’s it; my top ten posts of all time. I hope
you enjoyed reading it and a big thank you to all of you who continue to read
this blog and especially those who take the time and trouble to leave me a
comment.